Why Britain is best explored by motorcycle

With the emphasis on staying on home turf this summer rather than enduring the risks and administrative tribulations of holidaying ‘overseas’, many of us are heading out in search of parts of the country that we previously never bothered trying to discover. And what better way to find pastures new than by motorcycle?

That’s the thinking behind a fledgling business called Superior Motorcycle Adventures that aims to give riders, be they experienced or relative novices, the chance to explore rural Dorset on roads that are distinctly less travelled – in other words, the tracks and byways that were once plied by cattle drovers and journeymen but which, in a surprising number of cases, remain legally open to vehicular traffic.

Often narrow, overgrown, washed-out and rocky, they are not places where many urban ‘SUV’ owners would wish to venture – but they’re ideal for lightweight trail bikes. The area’s surprisingly extensive network of ‘legal’ trails was partly discovered back in 1980 by a motorcycle enthusiast called Ian Rennie after he read an article published 52 years earlier about an event called the Arbuthnot Trial.